Sunday, January 17, 2010

Pomo Grille Closing - Some Bad Information

I previously posted about the closing of the Pomo Grille. When I heard that the restaurant was closing, I went to Pomo Grille and talked to the hostess. She informed me about the plans for the Monte Restaurant Development Group to convert the location into a Squisito Pizza & Pasta restaurant, and she told me that Squisito would be opening on Monday, January 18. I said to her, "January 18th! They're going to be able to do the renovations in one week?" And she said something like, "Yep. I heard that a crew will be starting tomorrow (January 10)."

I did send an e-mail to the Monte Restaurant Development Group last week to confirm the conversion plans, but I never received a reply.

I have yet to see any signs of renovations at the restaurant. This is how things looked on Saturday morning, January 16.

Multiple notices of the closing hang on the door, and nobody took in the new phone books. Phone books? Do they still print those things?

A closer look at the notice - note the 15% discount at the 4 Seasons Grille through February 28. I didn't see any promotional posters for the new Squisito.

I just spoke to our corporate attorneys and they said if you would like proof of us being pushed out of the location by the landlord you can check the court records as they are public record for the filing of the landlords for repossession of the property.

Thanks again as I forwarded your message along to the powers to be.....

Hope to see you and yours at another of our operating restaurants.

If you send me a forwarding address I will have Christina mail out a gift certificate so you can be our guest at our sister location in Crofton Four Seasons.

Bill,This just gets more interesting all the time. I couldn't find any open judiciary case between Federal Reality and either Monte Restaurant/Pomo Grille, so it doesn't look like they're suing each other - as of now. If it's public record, I'm not sure why Monte RDG wouldn't just provide you with the public information. It feels a little high school-ish to me.Mike

HI I'm India and of course my family, friends and I were very disappointed that POMO GRILLE closed. This was not the only best restaurant, but the friendliness, the food the very best. I miss this resturant so much, the Pizza and all was excellent. I am waiting for another nice Italian Restuarant to appear, especially in Bowie, but, who knows.

I received a request from a former employee of Federal Realty Investment Trust to remove her name and e-mail address from this blog post. The names and addresses were not actually included as part of the blog post, but they were included in a comment from a reader. Bill had re-posted an e-mail that he received from Monte Development Group, and that e-mail included the e-mail addresses of contacts at Federal Realty. I deleted Bill's comment from above, but I have included it here without the Federal Realty e-mail addresses:

I sent the following email to The Monte Restaurant Development Group:

To: info@monterdg.comSubject: Pomo Grill Closing

We were disappointed to find out that Pomo Grill had closed. Whathappened that made it necessary to shut down so suddenly? My wife,friends and I felt that it was the best restaurant in our area. Is theresomething that The City of Bowie could have done to keep it open?

I received the following response:

William~

Thanks so much for the email. We too are very disappointed, however thelandlord did everything possible to not allow us to remain as PomoGrille oreven as our strongest brand within the MONTE group Squisito. I would lovefor you to forward your message along to them as well so they can see howwell we were supported in the local community. But not to worry we arecoming back to Bowie as soon as we are able and any gift cards you may haveare welcome anytime and forever at Four Seasons Grille in Crofton.

I am forwarding the landlord's information if you would like to pass along amessage. These are the people that has made it impossible to survive. Weapologize for any inconvenience this has caused you and thank you very muchfor your patronage over the past several years.